The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday defended the legitimacy of the party’s taking over properties left by Japan in Taiwan in 1945, saying they were compensation for damages sustained by the party during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The KMT made the assertions at a news conference in Taipei yesterday, one day before the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the party’s acquisition of assets formerly owned by Japan through a method called “transfer and appropriation” (轉帳撥用).
The Executive Yuan committee has listed a total of 458 so-called “special national properties” — referring to Japanese colonial properties taken over by the Republic of China (ROC) — that it believes were obtained by the KMT through “transfer and appropriation” before transferring them to a third party.
The KMT is believed to have used the method in the early days to transfer ownership of “special national properties” it occupied to the party, or to have properties appropriated to the KMT for use free of charge.
Citing Item 1, Article 30 of the 1931 ROC Political Tutelage Period Act (中華民國訓政時期約法), KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said that the party was required by the act to impose a party-state system during the political tutelage period, which coincided with Taiwan’s transition from Japanese rule to the 1947 implementation of the ROC Constitution.
“Based on resolutions made by the [now-defunct] Supreme National Defense Council in 1946 and 1947 during the political tutelage period ... the KMT was allowed to use Japanese colonial assets as compensation for damages it suffered during the ROC’s war of resistance against Japan,” Chiu said.
Attorney Chang Shao-teng (張少騰), who represents the KMT, said all government orders issued before the implementation of the Constitution remain valid, except those that contravene the Constitution.
“The KMT received the government’s compensation for wartime damages as a civil organization and in accordance with valid government orders. It did not run counter to the nature of a political party or the principles of democracy and rule of law,” Chang said.
The Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) defines ill-gotten assets as those obtained by a political party in a manner that runs counter to the nature of a political party or the principles of democracy and rule of law.
Chang urged the committee not to arbitrarily overlook historical facts and make any illegal and unconstitutional decisions.
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